FUMIGATION REPORT

On Thursday, November 15, the Witness for Peace Colombia Team received a report that aerial fumigation had started again in the southern department of Putumayo. On Saturday, November 17, we went to Putumayo to participate in a series of meetings and to gather information. We took testimony and documented visible effects of fumigation damages. We have written several reports of our findings. The report on this page is an attempt to communicate the information we have gathered to the network in the United States that is working to end aerial eradication and to seek a just resolution to the crisis in southern Colombia.

Deadly Fumigation Returns to Putumayo:

Violations of Colombian Law and U.S. Conditions
A Report by Witness for Peace

El Paraíso: A Story of Unfulfilled Promises
On November 13th the first DynCorp* spray planes and their helicopter escorts could be heard coming over the horizon. For the people of El Paraíso, a small group of communities in Valle de Guamuez, the sound of helicopter blades signaled everything was about to change. The families of El Paraíso are among the 37,000 families in Putumayo that signed agreements with the national government over the course of the past year. In these "social pacts," as they are called, the small farmers agreed to replace coca with legal crops like corn and rice over a 12-month period. In turn, the government agreed to make the less lucrative crops more viable by creating transportation infrastructure and providing small farmers with the technical assistance, supplies, and market guarantees necessary for a production shift.

The families of El Paraíso were so anxious to begin the process that on October 22, 2001 they signed an additional, voluntary pact with the National Plan for Alternative Development, a governmental development agency. The pact stated that each participant would manually eradicate 2-4 acres of coca in exchange for additional aid.

Foreseeing the challenges of a radical change in production, most of the 120 families in the community pooled their resources for a greater chance of success and formed an association of rice growers. Though it was a new experiment for the community, rice production seemed promising. The association sought financial support to purchase the machinery to process harvested rice into the form we see on our supermarket shelves.

But by mid-November, six months after signing pacts, El Paraíso had not received any government assistance related to the social pacts. The social pacts signed by the government and the small farmers state, "It is agreed that the signer community has twelve (12) months from the arrival of the first resources associated with the commitments of the National Government to eradicate the illicit crops." Therefore the people of El Paraíso still had at least twelve months to fulfill their commitments. Furthermore, this raises many questions about the seriousness of the US government to pursue alternative development.

Indiscriminate Spraying Kills Subsistence Crops and Devastates Countless Families
Four spray planes flew over the small plots of El Paraíso three times, staying low to the ground to ensure maximum precision. According to residents, the pilots hit everything the community needed to survive. Along with the distinguishable rows of bright green coca, the planes sprayed subsistence crops near peoples' homes-- yucca, plantains, beans, fruit trees, corn, pineapples, and the swaths of well-maintained rice fields the community had just planted. Many farmers testified that the chemical herbicide fell on homes, community buildings, and even farm animals. Particularly disconcerting is the contamination of community water sources, affecting everything from drinking water, irrigation of crops, and the health of animals.

El Paraíso is just one of many communities reeling from this latest fumigation campaign. In one remote community, there are reports of an eleven-month old baby being hit with the fumigation chemicals three successive times. When the baby fell ill with severe diarrhea and vomiting the next day, his parents took him to the nearest hospital in La Hormiga where he received treatment from the director. The baby died within 24 hours
of being admitted. Although the doctor cannot say unequivocally that the baby's death was a direct result of the fumigation chemicals, he could give no other explanation. Along with immediate health effects, small farmers face the prospect of several unproductive crop cycles-- a daunting forecast for people who have nothing on which to fall back.

Broken laws, broken trust
Colombian Law 0005 of 2000, which regulates fumigations, states that fumigation will be used only on coca farms bigger than 5 acres. Similarly, the law states that unless food crops are being planted as "dummy crops"-food crops that are planted among coca in order to confuse the aerial spraying program-only illicit crops will be targeted; sparing food crops, pasture lands and water sources. In fact, the law states that "the application of agricultural

chemicals in rural zones cannot be carried out within less than 10 meters by land and less than 100 meters by air as a security border, in relation to bodies of water, roads, nuclei of human or animal populations or any other area that requires special protection." Nevertheless, Witness for Peace found evidence to suggest that all of the above have been and are being sprayed in the current fumigation campaign, in clear violation of the law.

While de Francisco criticizes the small farmers' non-compliance, he makes no mention of the complete lack of government follow-through in rural communities like El Paraíso. While it may be true some individuals in some communities had planted new coca crops, Witness for Peace did not find this to be a generalized situation. In fact, a Departmental Congressperson from Putumayo told Witness for Peace that, "While there may have been new crops planted by industrial-sized producers, the members of the pacts have not
planted new crops. They have respected their agreements with the government, hoping that the government complies with its promises."

For the people of El Paraíso, fumigation destroyed any chance of success with the social pacts. One local farmer stated, "We trusted the government to work with us to change our production, but now, with the fumigation, we are left in absolute poverty. All of my crops are destroyed."

US Punishing Campesinos; Pushing Fumigation
It is especially disheartening that the government would fumigate an area that still had ample time to fulfill its commitments. The collaborative actions of the US and Colombian governments suggest that the intentions of Plan Colombia were never to work with the small farmer or to implement any sort of social program, but rather to seek repressive military solutions to serious social problems. During an interview, a Colombian army officer in charge of one aspect of the fumigation campaign stated, "The military component of Plan Colombia has arrived. We've received our fatigues, our boots.but I haven't seen any of the social component." When asked why the Colombian government would fumigate at such an inopportune moment, the army official responded, "I just carry out orders from my president, but I believe the US government is pushing for a new round of fumigation."

In early October, the branch of the National Police in charge of the aerial eradication program sent a letter to all regional mayors requesting detailed information on the location of both legal and illegal crops in their respective municipalities, ostensibly to determine the sites for the next round of fumigations. It did not request, however, information on areas with social pacts underway-- a glaring error and clear evidence that the pacts carry no weight within the overall strategy of Plan Colombia. Recent fumigation patterns demonstrate that no effort was made to avoid spraying communities participating social pacts.

The Innocent Pay the Price
If last year's fumigations are any indication, there is a long list of adverse side effects that local health and human rights workers will confront as a result of the recent aerial campaign. Furthermore, most social workers suspect that the recent round of fumigation will force more people to leave their land, increasing the numbers of internally displaced people in Colombia. The internally displaced population-- already more than 2 million-- will likely migrate to urban areas or surrounding states where the pernicious effects of Plan Colombia have yet to reach.

Reams of documents fill the offices of the municipal governments in Putumayo-- signed social pacts, proposed agricultural projects, and even complaints filed during the last round of fumigation-- all showing the will of the small farmers to work with the government. Meanwhile, US pilots, contracted by the US government, fly US planes releasing chemicals manufactured in the US-- to destroy a product consumed primarily in the US.

*Private US corporation under a State Department contract to work in Colombia, mainly on the US backed fumigation campaigns